


A Day in the Life One-Shot - Up On a Roof

by Feral_Female



Category: Torchwood
Genre: M/M, One-Shot, Romance, janto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-24
Updated: 2017-08-24
Packaged: 2018-12-19 08:57:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 876
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11894361
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Feral_Female/pseuds/Feral_Female
Summary: It’s time for another “Day in the Life” short. They are not part of the major storylines time line.For those new to me and my world, these one-shots will be short little vignettes- some will be funny, some emotional, some erotic - but all will be either Jack or Ianto showing us the daily little mundane things in their lives, the things that they fight to preserve for us and for them.To quote Rhys Williams- “You do it so people can live their lives. And there’s nothing more important than that.”





	A Day in the Life One-Shot - Up On a Roof

**Up On a Roof**

**Ianto**

(Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author of this story. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any previously copyrighted material. No copyright infringement is intended.)

Sleep. It was quite an elusive thing for Torchwood agents. We’ve all discussed how difficult it can be to turn off the clicking, clacking cinema reels filled with things that no human mind should witness at night. It was no wonder we all medicated with alcohol, sex, and sometimes drugs, although none of the current team had any drug addictions to my knowledge. Yet, anyway.

All four of us at Torchwood Three had only been doing this job for less than ten years and our dreams were horrific at times. Jack… well, Jack had been facing terrible things for well over a hundred and fifty years. How he managed I’d never know. I had my own nocturnal demons that came to call. They’d not been as vocal the past eleven months since Jack had started sleeping at my flat. His presence soothed me, even when I was asleep. Knowing he was there made me feel safe, I’ll admit that. So, when they did visit now, the intensity was twice as frightening as it had been when they had prowled my dreams nightly.

Tonight, I’d come awake with a garbled yelp as I fought with the covers. The stench of blood and death was rich in my nose. I could still see the inside of that refrigerator. A foot lying atop chunks of human flesh. Bodies hung upside-down to bleed out…

I rolled from the bed to my feet, gagging, eyes tearing, pacing off the memory of cannibalistic eyes glowing with hunger. Light. I needed light. And Jack. The light came on silently, filling the bedroom and showing me that my boyfriend was not in bed. Skin tacky with sweat, I shivered and located the sleep pants I’d slipped off before climbing in beside Jack. He preferred to sleep nude, and liked me the same. I didn’t mind at all. Now I ached for his touch and his practiced, calming words of reassurance.

Tying the string inside the pants tightly, I left the bedroom, only to discover that he was nowhere in the flat. I stood in the living room, the scent of garlic and oregano still on the air from the lasagna I’d prepared for our dinner. A chilly breeze blew over my bare back. I turned and saw that the window leading to the fire escape was wide open. I’d checked that window before turning off all the lights. Suspecting I now knew where he was, I slung one leg over the window frame then another, and slowly climbed up another two floors. Just as I had suspected, Jack stood on the edge of the roof, his coat snarling around him as a cold front blew over Wales. He’d pulled his coat on and some trousers, that was it. His chest was bare as were his feet.

“Keeping an eye on Gotham, are we?” I asked after padding over to stand beside him. He turned from the incoming wind to smile at me.

“Does that make you my sidekick?”

“‘The Boy Wonder’ makes our relationship sound a bit dodgy.” I hugged myself and faced the city.

“Maybe you could be ‘Coffee Man’?”

I chuckled at the moniker. “What pushed you up here, aside from your love of roofs?”

“I had to think.”

“Ah.” I shuddered. He slid his arm around my shoulder, draping his coat across my back. The thick wool felt fabulous. “I just spent another night enjoying the countryside.”

“Damn, still huh?” I nodded dully. “It gets to me when I walk past the meat department at the grocery store. That smell of blood…”

“I avoid that section when at all possible.” I took a small step to the left to suck up some of his amazing body heat. “What did you need to think about?”

He exhaled deeply. “You made lasagna.”

“Oh.” I wasn’t expecting that reply. “I don’t understand.”

“When Gwen first came to us, I told her she needed to go home, eat lasagna, and kiss her boyfriend. I told her to be normal.” He looked over at me safe and snug under his wing. “We did all of that tonight, Ianto. I ate your lasagna, I kissed you, we watched TV and we went to bed. We were normal. I just -- it’s been so long since I’ve been… I’ve been married to the job for so long. I almost feel like I’m cheating on Torchwood. It’s stupid and confusing and pretty damn wonderful to feel like this. God, that sounded asinine, didn’t it?”

“It sounded quite romantic to me.”

“Yeah? Okay then, _you_ explain to Torchwood about us when she finds out where I’ve been spending my nights for almost a year.”

“I’m not scared of Torchwood. You’re mine now. She had you long enough, the greedy bitch.”

He pressed a kiss to my hair. I burrowed in closer. We faced the dawn together wound in a woolen blanket of blue-gray.

 

**The End**

 


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